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Hennessey HPE1200 Corvette ZR1 Sounds Amazing On the Dyno

For the time being, the C7 Corvette in ZR1 flavor is the most powerful General Motors vehicle entitled to wear a license plate. The LT5 small-block V8 with a thumpin’ great supercharger is responsible for 755 horsepower and no fewer than 715 pound-feet of torque, translating to 2.9 seconds to 60 and a top speed of 212 miles per hour.
Hennessey HPE1200 Corvette ZR1 dyno run 18 photos
Photo: screenshot from YouTube
Hennessey HPE1200 Package Takes the Corvette ZR1 To 1,200 HorsepowerHennessey HPE1200 Package Takes the Corvette ZR1 To 1,200 HorsepowerHennessey HPE1200 Package Takes the Corvette ZR1 To 1,200 HorsepowerHennessey HPE1200 Package Takes the Corvette ZR1 To 1,200 HorsepowerHennessey HPE1200 Package Takes the Corvette ZR1 To 1,200 HorsepowerHennessey HPE1200 Package Takes the Corvette ZR1 To 1,200 HorsepowerHennessey HPE1200 Package Takes the Corvette ZR1 To 1,200 HorsepowerHennessey HPE1200 Package Takes the Corvette ZR1 To 1,200 HorsepowerHennessey HPE1200 Package Takes the Corvette ZR1 To 1,200 HorsepowerHennessey HPE1200 Package Takes the Corvette ZR1 To 1,200 HorsepowerHennessey HPE1200 Package Takes the Corvette ZR1 To 1,200 HorsepowerHennessey HPE1200 Package Takes the Corvette ZR1 To 1,200 HorsepowerHennessey HPE1200 Package Takes the Corvette ZR1 To 1,200 HorsepowerHennessey HPE1200 Package Takes the Corvette ZR1 To 1,200 HorsepowerHennessey HPE1200 Package Takes the Corvette ZR1 To 1,200 HorsepowerHennessey HPE1200 Package Takes the Corvette ZR1 To 1,200 HorsepowerHennessey HPE1200 Package Takes the Corvette ZR1 To 1,200 Horsepower
The thing is, the aftermarket can do better than Chevrolet as far as suck-squeeze-bang-blow is concerned. The inherent design of these engines makes them easily tunable, and Hennessey Performance Engineering is much obliged to offer three upgrade levels.

In addition to the HPE850 and HPE1000, the Texas-based company also offers the HPE1200 package for the Corvette ZR1. As the name implies, you’re looking at 1,200 horsepower at the crankshaft and 1,066 pound-feet of torque at 4,000 revolutions per minute. The out-of-this-world performance is impressive even on the dyno, which confirmed 1,139 horsepower and 994 pound-feet at the rear wheels on Shell E85 fuel.

E85 means that the gasoline is blended with ethanol, a mixture that’s highly popular in Minnesota and Illinois. GM is one of the earliest adopters of this type of fuel, but the Corvette ZR1 is designed to run on 93 octane. Regular gasoline (91 octane) is also permitted, but Chevy didn’t mention the difference this fuel would make in terms of output.

The car in the featured video also runs 24 psi of boost pressure, a lot more than the 13.96 psi standard rating of the LT5. The Roots-type helix rotors spin at 15,860 rpm to develop maximum boost pressure, and the 2.6L blower is 52 percent larger than the one in the LT4-engined Corvette Z06.

The HPE1200 upgrade doesn’t require a transmission upgrade if we’re talking about the seven-speed manual, and as expected, the modified engine is also capable of running on 93 octane. Using this type of gasoline translates to 1,100 horsepower, which is more than enough by all accounts. On that note, can you imagine the HPE1200 running on 100-octane race fuel?

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About the author: Mircea Panait
Mircea Panait profile photo

After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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